The first printed map of Muscat, Oman. Drawn by the German cartographer Carsten Niebuhr, the only surviving member of the Danish Arabia Expedition (1761-1767).

The expedition travelled from Copenhagen to Cairo, down the Red Sea to Yemen, through the Persian Gulf from Muscat to Basra, and then across Mesopotamia, Turkey, and Poland back to Copenhagen. The maps that Niebuhr, the expedition's cartographer, produced on the way are some of the best European maps of Arabia produced during the 18th century. He was later credited by William Palgrave, the British Arabist and explorer, as the man "who first opened up Arabia for Europe."

Coloured. [MEAST4903]